Thursday, January 15, 2015

Snippets #36: March 1, 1986

This one is from a March 1, 1986 letter to Mom and Pop typed on our Coleco ADAM computer:

"I'm really sorry to have been such a bum about writing letters… it's just that I have been so freaking' busy! I won't bore you with the details, as I'm sure you heard enough about it in my video letter. Suffice it to say that while we feel great about finally finishing TMNT #7 (three weeks late, but what the heck), we are still under the gun with our next book to finish by the end of May, along with all the artwork for the second turtle role-playing game. So for the next few months, we'll still be insanely busy. C'est la vie!

The weather here has been beautiful lately, except for one bizarre day last week. It just happened to be the very day that we had to drive out to Poughkeepsie to deliver the artwork for TMNT #7 to the printer. Well, that morning it was snowing! I mean, the day before had been sunny and warm, almost 70… and here it was, snow, blowing all over the place! On the way out to Poughkeepsie, it actually turned into a small blizzard, and the driving was pretty hellish, all the way out and all the way back. I thought that we might be in for a relapse of winter, but the very next day it was hot and sunny and all the snow had disappeared. Who can figure…?

…………..

Kevin and I are getting ready to leave for FLorida tomorrow, for a two-day convention in Fort Lauderdale. We'll be coming back next Tuesday, probably in a sunburned state. Should be fun!"

[Fans knowledgeable of TMNT history may realize that the Fort Lauderdale convention mentioned in the last paragraph was the one out of which came the "Turtlemania" collectible -- a small fanzine-type publication featuring a variety of TMNT art. Its various iterations have gone on to demand high prices as collectibles over the years since… I'm not entirely sure why.

I recall that this show was small, held in a medium-sized function room at a hotel, and that Kevin and I came to refer to it as the "Relaxi-Con", due to the very low traffic and light crowds. I remember it was so dead at times that some of the dealers were playing cards with each other to alleviate the boredom.

I am intrigued by the mention of a "video letter" -- I seem to recall creating something like this with a rented video camera when we lived in Sharon. I wonder if I have a copy of it somewhere...? -- PL]